Various elongate flimsy members need to be handled by automated systems in the medical industry. These members are manufactured to become, for example, guide wires or catheters. These members are often up to 100 inches in length and may have a diameter of less than 0.030 inches in diameter. These members are generally flimsy to the extent that their weight is not able to pull them down with enough force to make them hang straight due to stress left in the materials from their manufacturing processes. A “flimsy” elongate member can, for example, be defined as a member that cannot resist a force of 0.1 pound applied upwardly to the bottom of the member. The flimsy member will buckle rather than resist the force.
These members are most conveniently processed by hanging vertically with the top end secured and the bottom end hanging loose. Generally these members will hang with curvatures that for a length greater than 20 inches may extend outwardly several inches. There may be no particular consistency in the hang pattern of one piece to the next. When more than one such elongate flimsy member is vertically hung adjacent to one another, intertwinement and entanglement may result. Although the individual members may be spaced sufficiently to avoid such intertwinement or entanglement, this equates to excessive space and volume requirements in the processing equipment. To reliably handle these devices in batch processing equipment and particularly automated equipment, a method and apparatus is needed to manage the tendency to intertwine and entangle and to position, control, and locate the ends of the elongate flimsy members. This is particularly needed for coating processes and equipment where the elongate flimsy members are inserted into funnel tubes for the coating.